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Satin Finish on Stainless

So I polished my Tojiro DP this weekend, since it was the knife I learned to sharpen on, and use daily--it was quite scratched and beat up. I wanted to clean it up, but the polish sticks, and I don't even like it! I would really like an even, hazy, scratch-less pattern on it. If anyone has a Gray Kunz spoon, look at the handle. That's what I want on the blade, so it will stick less, and contrast the polished edge.

But I do not have time, money, or desire to search my whole life for Natural stones that create the magic combo. Is there a reliable way to create that kind of finish?

I do satin finish with automotive sandpaper. Depending how deep the scratches are, you will have to select your grits, but for moderate scratches, starting with 320 grit should do, and 800 will give you a nice satin finish.

To sand your knife effectively, you need it to lie flat. You have to put something under the blade, so when you clamp the knife at the handle, the blade is flat. I don't know what your setup is, so you have to play with it. For a sanding stick (12"x2x1"), I use soft wood like poplar as it has plenty give. Stainless steel sanding requires a good amount of pressure with higher grits. If you drop to lower girts, you might have a hard time removing scratches.

So with your knife secured on a surface, you wrap a piece of sandpaper around your stick and holding it with two hands, you sand your knife using back-and- forth motion, moving paper up as it wears out. Windex(sp?) or WD-40 will make paper wear slower.

320, 500, 600 should give you a good base for final finish. Final step,you do your motion only forward (I do forward, from tip to handle). So make one pass, lift the stick, move the paper up (you do one pass on the paper) and do it again. I am sure this will make more sense once you start doing it.

You will remove printed logo btw.

M

"All beauty that has no foundation in use, soon grows distasteful and needs continuous replacement with something new." The Shakers' saying.

Yeah, the printed logo is gone already. It's at a 2500 grit polish, but I was really polishing out scratches and didn't spend enough time with the medium grits to see the satin finish. I will certainly do this on a less loved knife first.

Will this leave a scratch pattern? Will finger stones leave a less noticeable scratch pattern?

if you got any, give Mobil 1 synthetic oil a shot, it "floats" all the filings from the sandpaper and the blade steel, and really helps leave a nice silky satin finish. This is a 2000 grit finish, just to give an idea...